Fair Work blitz nets back pay bonanza for dozens of underpaid SA workers

DOZENS of workers across the city have been back paid more than $243,000 following a blitz by the Fair Work ombudsman.

The paybacks followed complaints by workers at several of the unnamed businesses, which voluntarily rectified the matter after being alerted.

The largest recovery was $101,400 for 18 workers at a health industry organisation in the city.

Others included $28,100 recovered for two city administration officers underpaid redundancy entitlements, $12,700 for a West Beach retail worker underpaid wages and $12,000 for a Plympton Park tradesperson underpaid long service leave.

Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson said when inspectors identified a problem and contacted a business, most employers checked their records, realised a problem had occurred and fixed it immediately.

"When we find mistakes, we're here to assist and give practical advice to employers on how to voluntarily fix them," Mr Wilson said.

"These businesses have now corrected the errors that led to the underpayments and put processes in place to ensure they will not happen again."

The Fair Work Ombudsman recovered just over $2.4 million in back pay for 1875 workers in SA last financial year, up from $1.5 million recouped for 1048 workers the previous year.

Between July 1, 2009 and 30 September, 2012, the Fair Work Ombudsman recovered a total of $100.2 million in back-pay for more than 56,000 unpaid workers in Australia.

Minister for Employment Participation Kate Ellis said while the "overwhelming majority" of employers did the right thing "those who get it wrong usually do so inadvertently".